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As I perused the articles found in the emerging market library, there was one that caught my attention; EDUCAUSE: 7 Things Review. These are a series of articles that provide information on current and emerging technologies. The information in these articles is written in a simple manner where anyone, education, educational technologists and laypeople, would be able to understand the basics of the technology. The articles are based on answering 7 questions:

1. What is it?
2. How does it work?
3. Who’s doing it?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for higher education.

The 7 questions are those that would be asked by those who may be looking at implementing or trialing the technology. The publications provide a means to explain to an institutional committee who would decide if the technology would be a good fit for the institution.

EDUCAUSE: 7 Things format is very simple as it answers the questions in a 2-page PDF paper published throughout the year when there are updates or new technologies that need to analyzed. I find that the format is very easy to follow and the language is simplistic enough that everyone would be able to understand it. One thing I noted was the case studies that were provided and I found that these added to the realism of the technology and if usage would be right for the institution.

I find that this is a very viable site and it will become a permanent bookmark on my computer. It is also a good area to send or refer those who are looking for basic information on a technology.

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 7 Things You Should Know series is a collection of 100 two-page articles, each focused on a single topic related to the use of the latest technology in post secondary education (Educause, 2013).

Although they are primarily intended for the faculty and students of colleges and universities, their concise nature, combined with their simple style and language, makes them accessible to people in other levels of education as well as the general public.

Each article aims to answer the following seven questions related to its topic:

What is it?

How does it work?

Who’s doing it?

Why is it significant?

What are the downsides?

Where is it going?

What are the implications for higher education?

This provides a useful framework for:

– introducing and evaluating new technology

– inspiring technological development

– keeping up-to-date with emerging technologies

I have already browsed through a number of issues and have managed to locate several articles related to our team market analysis topic. They may be able to provide us with a starting point from which to begin our investigation and some ideas about how to proceed from there.

I will definitely be revisiting this resource in the future, both to review articles I have already located and to find new ones. It is a very user-friendly source of technological information that I will recommend to several friends and colleagues who are interested in emerging technologies. Once you find an article of interest, you can use tags to find related resources within this library and the community and learn about new technologies for hours!

This article is packaged in an accessible and appealing way. There are colourful visuals and directional arrows that guide one through the emerging Ed tech trends for 2013. This document is designed to be a brief overview of some of the trends anticipated this year and it provides that, with little surprises or depth of information. Nevertheless, the document manages to provide several examples regardless.

I thought it was interesting to start with SMS. This is not an attention grabber and did not seem to be as relevant as technologies such as social media or free online university courses.

I was also surprised to see 3D printing presented so prominently. I had not previously considered the connections between 3D printing and classroom practice. Although a few examples are mentioned, I am somewhat skeptical, without more information, about the likelihood that my classroom (or any classroom that I visit regularly) will be equipped with a 3D printer this year (or next year for that matter).

I found my personal interest drifting to those technologies included as footnotes at the end of the page. BYOD, game-based learning and e-books (particularly those with integrated accessibility options such as text-to-speech) are much more relevant to my work as a learning support teacher. Perhaps links to more details regarding each of the topics to further information would have allowed those interested to explore specifics in more detail and perhaps learn from experiences of those who have worked with the technologies already.

Overall, I thought the document is interesting to browse through and easy to navigate, though lacked some key details, more examples and background information that many professionals within different organizations would be interested in.

If this sort of document were improved in the manner suggested above, I would definitely subscribe and recommend it to other educators as well. As it stands now, the document would be a great discussion starter for professional development, staff meetings and Ed tech workshops. These could be venues were details, suggestions for implementation and examples of use in classrooms could be explored in greater depth.

Ed tech venturers might require a document with a little more depth in order to make decisions about the creation, direction and implementation of technologies. This might be something that might be shared through social media with colleagues rather than become the basis of a complex development process.

I found this publication to be the most informative for my practice as a teacher and technology coordinator in a secondary school. Despite the fact that it focuses on higher education, many technologies described in the document are applicable to a secondary education setting. I also looked at the K-12 version, and many predictions involve the same emerging technologies. The higher ed as well and the K-12 document follow the same format, making predictions on which technologies will be widely adopted by practitioners within one to five years. The advisory board for both document is composed of different members and each are made up of technologists, analysts, researchers, administrators, as well as business and industry leaders. Conspicuously absent from the boards are educators themselves which I found interesting. Perhaps teachers are too busy trying to connect their Smartboards properly too see the next wave of technology that will come crashing in their classrooms.

Smart aleck joke apart, I would definitely recommend that educators read the Horizon report every year to get a sense of which technologies can help them in their practice. I also think it is important for educators to know what technologies loom on the horizon, so they can participate in their development, implementation, or critic.

Learning technology specialists as well as administrators should also read the reviews to help them make informed decisions. The fact that the report revisit some of the same technologies every year may be the best tool available to them when it comes to decide which ones will fade away and which ones will stick around. Even a glimpse of what may be possible five years down the road can help them make better decisions about organizational and infrastructure upgrades.

Finally, for the entrepreneurs/developers who are not already involved in the development and implementation of the technologies reviewed, this document can point to potential ventures as it identifies problems requiring solutions. Knowing what is already taking place can also help the developers to seek simpler, cheaper, better integrated versions of these emerging technologies.

Lists. Lists are engaging and easily trick your mind into a feeling of accomplishment. The quick and dirty nature of the Educause 7 things articles appeal to the time-crunch culture propagated by technologist blogs.

7 Things’ approach, a 2 page PDF published throughout the year, allows for analysis of trends as they arise as well as updates to previously covered material. This provides current, easily consumable information. The willingness to update previous overviews is beneficial as emerging technology does not always follow a predictable path. The main benefactors of this approach are people looking for an overview of current trends. With the basics of the article available in an abstract, the viewer is given the chance to reflect on the usefulness of the information before clicking through.

For any education professional making a pitch to a committee or potential employer, these articles provide an excellent base of knowledge. The case study introductions provide theoretical real-world situations to which the article contents pertain. These can be somewhat contrived, however, they serve to ground the full text for someone who is not well versed in the field and may question the relevance or practicality of the featured technology. While great for introducing ideas to more technologically removed individuals, Specialists may find it’s a good place to send people who ask annoying questions but will probably seek out more in-depth sources to further understanding and spark dialogue within their communities.

I would definitely use this as a starting point for research on a particular topic. The article publication date serves as a good indicator on when the technology first came to relevance within the Educause community, providing a timeline for research. Because of the approachable and concise nature of the articles, I feel it is a viable resource for anyone interested in education technology.

Gartner Inc. provides a glimpse into the future. Their report focuses on the next top 10 technologies that have either grown into game changing technology or have the potential to grow into one.

This review will focus on the technologies I feel will have the largest impact education. I have merged some of the top 10 technologies, as I feel they are directly related.

Change: Microsoft is being attacked on two fronts; mobile devices are becoming more popular than PCs and Microsoft only has 20% of the mobile market.

Impact on Education: Every school that has the adequate budget currently has either an Apple computer or PC located in classrooms or libraries. With a shift towards mobile devices will the need for a full labs still be needed? A school that advocated BYOT (Bring your own technology) could potential reduce its need for dedicated computer labs. Apps like Socrative are making mobile devices a viable educational tool.

Change: The storage of information and to a certain degree the running of apps is moving from the traditional PC to the cloud. People are now expecting access to their information 24/7 regardless of their location (of course Internet needed)

Impact on Education: Traditionally students have been limited to their access to school material and learning programs to a physical building. As the capability of clouds services increases, the opportunity to move educational resources to the cloud will only increase.

In addition, as cloud services get more efficient, the memory capabilities of PCs or handhelds will become less relevant, whereas the need for larger Internet bandwidth will increase. Schools will potentially move away from investing in labs and servers and move towards providing larger Internet bandwidth.

Future Reports:

Gartner Inc. delivers a concise and simple list of potential future technologies. This is an invaluable resource to keep on top of new emerging technologies that could potentially affect education.

This report is part of a longitudinal research study of emerging technologies that began in March 2002 as cooperation between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Each year, they issue a new report for k-12, higher education and museums. Sometimes they implement sector and regional specific studies as well.

The report first introduces the context in which the new emerging technologies are taking place through highlighting the general trends and challenges facing learning technologies in higher education. Once the context is clear, the report summarizes the six emerging learning technologies that will be affecting higher education throughout different time ranges.

General trends:

The concept of openness is taking hold as in open content, open data, and open resources

MOOCs are explored as alternatives and supplements to traditional university courses.

The needed skills in the work place are acquired more in informal learning experiences not universities

Increasing use of new sources of data for personalizing the learning experience and for performance measurement

The changing role of educators

Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models

Challenges for adopting technology in Higher Education:

Faculty training still does not include digital media literacy

The emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching outpace sufficient and scalable modes of assessment

Education’s own processes and practices limit adoption of new technologies

Personalized learning is not supported by current technology or practices

Competition between new models of education and traditional ones

Most academics are not using new technologies for learning and teaching, nor for organizing their own research

Emerging learning technologies in Higher Education

Short-term: expected in the next 12 months

MOOCS

Tablets

Mid-term: expected to be widely adopted within 2-3 years

Games and Gamification

Learning Analytics

Long-term: expected to be widely adopted within 4-5 years

3D printing

Wearable Technology

In each technology the report covers the following points:

A brief summary about the technology itself, when it appeared, recent developments and its expected potential as well as criticism

Its relevance to learning and creative inquiry

Examples of its application in Higher Education.

Further readings with links to resources discussing this technology

I believe this report is very useful for educators, learning technologies specialists and ventures in higher education as it helps them understand the broader context they are working in and the specific emerging technologies they need to focus on. The provided time-frame for each technology also helps them plan their engagement. In discussing the technologies themselves, the report presents a balanced view of each technology with its pros and cons or what both the supporters and opponents say. Mentioning concrete examples of application in Higher Education with links to these examples is an additional help to the readers who can experience a real life application of the technology not just an abstract concept.

I think the only point that this report may lack compared to other reports is providing quantitative data of the trends, challenges and technologies it presents. This would have strengthened its case more. However detailing the used methodology and qualification of the 51 members who worked on the report with a link to their wiki where all the resources they used and the discussions they had would make for the lack of quantitative data.

I think I would be following future versions to keep myself updated with emerging trends, technologies and their application worldwide and to get inspired with new ways to improve my own practice.

P.S. away from the Horizon Report, I liked the major ed-tech trends for 2013. Its presentation is super creative. Though it is very limited, it also provides some basic information about how each technology is currently used. I would use it as material for a presentation and to get a quick idea about what is expected but would use the more elaborate Horizon report for deeper understanding and more in-depth knowledge.

I am excited about taking my 7th and 8th course this term, which are both going to be on the UBC Blogs, not Connect. There is always something new going on with the MET program, and I think that is why I am enjoying it so much.

I work in Cold Lake, AB which isn’t very cold currently, but will quickly change temperatures and make us wish these warm days were more frequent. This term I am teaching Grade 9 Math, Science, and Health. Unlike the rest of Alberta my class sizes are very reasonable, so I thank my lucky stars for that.

In my spare time I am a volunteer firefighter with Cold Lake Fire-Rescue, and the president of the ATA Science Council.

This summer I was able to travel to Greenland and Baffin Island, and the photo below was taken in Illulissat, Greenland. It was an incredible opportunity with a group called Students on Ice.

You have two instructors named David – David Vogt & David Porter. You can reach us whenever you wish at david DOT vogt AT ubc DOT ca and dporter AT bccampus DOT ca via email, or by using the message system in this weblog.

Rather than two concurrent sections of the course, we’ve combined everyone in order to get some crowdsourcing happening. We’re therefore a big group, which is why building a presence for yourself through good postings will be essential to your success. However, given the group size, be smart (and courteous!) – make all of your postings brief and valuable.

A few important points about this WordPress environment we’re going to share:

appropriate to the innovative spirit of ETEC522, we’re always trying something new. Please walk through “How To Use This Weblog” under the 1. Startup tab above to understand how this environment works.

it’s not an experiment if it doesn’t fail sometimes, so let us know when something isn’t working, or contact the MET support crew.

when you introduce yourself you don’t need to reveal your external email as we did above because we’re all connected via private email within this system. However, that’s one of the few things that are private. Please be aware at all times that your postings here are public – conduct yourselves accordingly.And if you do reveal your email, use a convention like I’ve done above.

Here’s your job list for this first week:

Carefully review everything about this course and what is expected of you by making your way through all of the section under the Startup tab above. Let us know immediately if anything isn’t clear, or if you have questions.